Catherine Chombart De Lauwe

I help international professionals and diplomats become credible and visible in French-speaking contexts where speaking is decisive.

My work focuses on the ability to convey and embody a clear and credible message in high-stakes situations.

It's not about speaking perfectly, but about speaking accurately, holding a message, and being heard.

Many competent professionals are not heard to the extent of their worth.

Not for lack of competence, but because speaking in a foreign context requires a dual awareness: awareness of what is being said, and awareness of how it is received. Under pressure, this dual awareness wavers. The message becomes diluted. Credibility erodes.

My approach starts from this observation:

Oral credibility is not based on linguistic perfection, but on the intention of the message, its clarity, and its embodiment.

My coaching is based on four essential questions:

- What is the situation and what is the intention of the message? Specify, clarify, structure, prioritize, decide what deserves to be said.

- Who am I addressing and what are their implicit communication codes?

- How to hold one's own under pressure? Speak without apologizing, conclude, give up on the perfect word.

- How to embody the message through the body? Gaze, posture, voice in service of the discourse.

My work restores to each person the ability to be fully present in situations where they felt like strangers to the language, the codes, the implicit dynamics.

It's a legitimate presence.